Take off

Monday, May 21^st

Grandma tells me “take off. Go run.” Jessie, our tour guide, says “left is Korea, right is Russia. Left is hard. Right is harder.” I listen to both of the women who have guided me to China, and run towards Russia.

I am finally on the Great Wall of China! The reason people travel to China. One of the 7 World Wonders. The trip 11 days in China has been physically and emotionally draining, but I have had no chance to go get my daily exercise that I am used to. I take advantage of being one of the first people on the wall in the early morning and run as far as I can go, only stopping for photographs. I run until I reach a sign that says “no visitors”. Below the sign is the continuation of the wall which has not been renovated. It is falling apart still. So, I casually turn around and head back to the center.

The great wall was originally unified by the First Emperor Qin. Before that China was 7 different countries who had all built their own walls. Emperor Qin combined all these walls and almost every emperor after him as added on to the wall trying to keep out the Barbaric Minorities. The wall was originally built with sticky rice and dirt as cement and spans about 4,000 miles. The last dynasty in the 1700s was the last dynasty to build upon the wall and repair the wall. The piece of wall that I ran on today was reconstructed in the 1700s. It was steep the entire way up and required long legs to take strides on the stairs.  I stood where many historians, slave laborers, military men, present day international leaders and past day emperors had stood before me. 270 degrees of the view must look like it did over 2000 years ago, but that 90 degrees had changed into a commercialized world. Vendors, tourist stops, hotels, and even a subway sandwich stop covered that 90 degree view.

After the Great Wall, we went to a jade display show where I bought jade earrings. Jade in China is more valuable than diamonds. It is a stone that you buy and pass down to your children for a family heirloom. It protects you from evil spirits and it brings prosperity and longevity. This factory that had jade on display were the same factory that put the jade discs in the center of the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Olympic Medals. As much as I would have liked to purchase a 1,000 US dollar jade pendant, I settled for lower quality jade in $40 dollar earrings, my first real purchase in China.